1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of password entry systems, and more particularly to a method and system for establishing a biometrically enabled password.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous conventional password entry systems exist that monitor keystroke dynamics as a biometric input, where keystroke dynamics can refer to pauses between key presses and key press combinations, duration of key presses, etc. that together form a typing signature that can be used to identify a user. Conventional password entry systems can require a constant monitoring of keystroke dynamics and can require that password entry occur in a fashion consistent with a characteristic keystroke dynamic recorded for an associated user. One drawback of such as system is that it can require users to complete an enrollment process before the users are granted access to the secured system, assuming that the enrollment processes establish a keystroke dynamic for the user.
Further, existing or known systems ignore the fact that for some period of time after creating a new password, a user's keystroke dynamics are not likely to be stable. A user entering a password with multiple characters will typically fail to consistently use the same cadence or pattern of keystrokes, particularly for a newly or recently created password. That is, until a password is “well known” a user can often pause (even slightly) in the entry of the password, which can cause the keystroke dynamics for the password to be different than that user's typical keystroke dynamics.
This difference can be especially pronounced when a strong password is used. A strong password in this context can be a long string of characters, but can also be a short but unusual combination of letters and/or numbers or other characters, the entry of which can cause the user's keystroke dynamics to be abnormal. The stronger the password, the longer the expected time to reach password production stability because strong passwords deliberately avoid stereotypical patterns of characters, which inhibits normal typing patterns. The problem with keystroke dynamics being initially unstable for a password has either not been identified within the field or not addressed as no existing password entry system (as currently known to the inventors herein) holds back on applying a keyboard biometric to a password until biometric characteristics have stabilized or become more consistent.